It was a season of change last fall for the Summit Athletic Conference.
Gone were the traditional 10-team standings and the nine-game conference season, in place since the addition of Carroll and Homestead in 2015. In were a pair of five-team divisions and the opportunity in weeks 1 and 2 to play out-of-conference foes, long something that fans and some coaches alike wanted to see.
How was Year 1 received? What was proven to be positives about the new format? Are there any negatives?
Outside the Huddle reached out to all 10 SAC head coaches, asking them to provide feedback on the format and granting them anonymity to allow them to speak more frankly.
Encouragingly, there were plenty of coaches that praised the changes.
“I only have positives to share regarding the alignment of the conference,” one coach said. “All naysayers have to realize that this is a six-year cycle and that within that timeframe all teams will rotate the non-divisional opponents off their schedule for two years.
“Also, the out-of-conference flexibility for all SAC schools provides them the opportunity to schedule teams of their choice.”
What the coach is referring to is the cries from some about imbalanced schedules. For instance, Bishop Luers (more on it later) did not play Carroll or Snider last season and will not again in this fall. But the fact that the division record is not affected by inter-divisional matchups makes the point of not playing some teams moot. Bishop Luers would have still won the “B” division even if it played Snider and Carroll and lost both games because it went undefeated in “B” division games.
For many coaches, finally getting to play regular-season games outside of the league was a huge boost. Whether the reasoning was visiting new places, challenging your team against potential state tournament foes or finding opportunities to get a few more victories, the positives were many.
“Playing games prior to conference is a great opportunity to prepare your team for an appropriate playoff run,” one coach said. “It allows you to play teams you’ve never played before and the games have no implication on the season other than to prep for the league and the playoffs.”
Another coach echoed those sentiments.
“Anytime we can play teams of our own size in any sport (but definitely in football), it’s a positive,” a coach said. “I think that applies to all of the schools in our conference, both large and small.
“I know it can get a bit messy in terms of determining the conference champion, but that problem pales in comparison to the opportunity to play equitable opponents.”
And therein laid the biggest issue with Year 1 – determining a champion. Snider and Bishop Luers won their respective divisions last season, but with no head-to-head matchup there was not a tiebreaker to award the SAC Victory Bell to just one squad.
The two will share the bell in 2024, although the two programs came to an amicable agreement to where Bishop Luers had it during its run to its 12th state championship last November.
“It’s interesting how the format was exposed in its first season,” one coach said. “The lack of clarity was obviously an issue with the media, the public and even the coaches and administrations.”
“Ultimately, the issue of establishing a clear and present champion was the biggest negative. My hopes are that anointing a champion, and cleaning up the whole tiebreaking process, will be smoother moving forward.”
There were some additional issues. For instance, the old nine-game league format prevented schools from having to fill their schedules, as it was already done for them. While some schools have a wealth of teams willing to add them to their slate, others have already had a tough time finding opponents. This was on display in Year 1, with Wayne and Northrop facing off in Week 2, although it worked out in a way considering there was not a regular-season matchup scheduled.
A few coaches brought up the fact that, due to travel time, junior varsity and freshman games had to be moved from weekdays to Saturday. While seemingly minor, coaches are creatures are habit, with Saturday typically for film study and recovery from Friday night as opposed to traveling with their underclass squads.
But overall, the changes made were for the better across the board. Finding a “true” singular champion each year is a tiny or a massive issue, depending on who you talk to.
We only needed the inaugural campaign to see the positives and negatives of the new format.
“I firmly believe the current format benefits all the conference programs more than it hurts,” one coach said. “It gives the smaller schools better opportunities to compete with programs at lower levels (depth/size/grade-level differences). It allows the larger schools to compete at the highest level in the state if they so choose, and it gives them more quality lower level games as roster sizes are typically similar. In my eyes, all of the kids benefit from this.
“Wins and losses should come second to having a positive experience on the gridiron for every program as a whole.”
Be the first to comment